ST. CLOUD, Minn. — It was almost like the two teams were playing the same series from December.
St. Cloud State was in control, but a rally by Omaha gave the Mavericks a lead and eventually, a victory, two months back.
The same nearly held true Friday night after another Mavericks charge, but this time, it was the Huskies who had the stunning rally and improbable victory.
Blake Winiecki had the game-tying goal with three minutes left and a goal 16 seconds later by David Morley gave the Huskies a gigantic 4-3 victory at the National Hockey Center.
Ethan Prow and Patrick Russell also scored for SCSU (14-14-1), who moved to 13th in the PairWise Rankings with the victory.
“Pretty wild,” Prow said of the game.
Special teams was the key in the first period-it badly hurt the fifth-ranked Mavericks and greatly helped the Huskies. Prow’s power-play goal came 8:16 in when he found paydirt from the slot, and his shot from the slot at 12:11 on another power play was tipped in by Russell, making it 2-0 St. Cloud State after one. It was initially credited to Prow, but changed to Russell’s goal well after the game ended.
It did seem like the Huskies were leaving it on the ice though, as they probably could’ve had an even bigger lead.
“We had chances to extend the lead, and we weren’t able to do it,” said SCSU coach Bob Motzko.
The only goal in the second period belonged to Omaha (17-9-3), and the Mavericks briefly reversed their early special teams troubles with a power-play goal of their own. After Jonny Brodzinski was sent off for roughing, Ian Brady beat SCSU goaltender Charlie Lindgren (23 saves) for his fifth goal of the season five seconds into the power play. It cut the St. Cloud lead in half at 18:14 and made it a 2-1 score.
But it was a crazy third period that gave the crowd of 4,197 their money’s worth. It saw Omaha score twice within a minute and a half to take the lead and quiet the raucous fans.
“We’ve lost third period leads [in the past], and we didn’t like our look on the bench,” said Motzko. “They’ve got too much talent to give them chances.”
It started with 10:58 remaining when UNO coach Dean Blais called a timeout following an Omaha icing. An ensuing Huskies rush led to a big save from UNO goaltender Ryan Massa (35 saves), then a 3-on-2 Omaha rush led to a goal by Tyler Vesel 24 seconds after the timeout. Then when Kalle Kossila was sent off for a trip, a faceoff win by Jake Guentzel led to a blast and a score from Austin Ortega two seconds later at 10:56 and just like that, the Mavericks had a 3-2 lead.
“Momentum’s a strange thing,” said Blais. “I thought when we got the third goal, ‘Austin’s got it again.'”
“It was a good battle-back from being down 2-0 there,” added Ortega, who was denied his NCAA record 11th game-winning goal of the season by the SCSU rally. “Tying it up was huge, and the go-ahead goal was nice.”
And because of that, the stage was set for Omaha to beat St. Cloud State the same way it did in December, as the Mavericks now had the lead.
Right?
Not so fast.
With about three minutes remaining, Winiecki lifted a wrister past Massa into the net to tie it at three. Then Morley was credited with the game-winner with 2:48 left as a Joey Benik rebounded deflected in off his shin. The goal was reviewed but it eventually counted, and the Huskies picked up a win they badly needed by giving the Mavericks a taste of their own medicine.
Even if it was in a crazy way.
“If you gotta have crazy games sometimes, let it be tonight,” said Motzko.
“We gotta keep fighting, and that’s what we did tonight,” added Prow. “We gotta pay those guys back for what happened down in Omaha, and we took the first step tonight.”
Despite the late loss, Blais isn’t getting down on his team, as they still have a chance to come away with the split on Saturday.
“Obviously, I’m real happy with the guys’ grit,” he said.
